One of my favorite times of the year is the week after Christmas. The stress of the holidays are over but the food still remains. There are so many ways to dress up leftovers. Turkey and stuffing casseroles, scalloped potatoes with ham, open faced turkey sandwiches, the list goes on and on. What do you do with the ham bone after the ham is gone? Do you toss it in the garbage? Let the dog have it? I don’t often share recipes. I’m a this-and-that chef as my mom called it, adding this or that as I choose without measuring anything. But my Potato Soup recipe is easy to follow, even without measuring.
I put the ham bone into a crock pot, fill it 3/4 full with peeled and quartered potatoes, and add enough water to cover the potatoes. Let it cook on low until the potatoes are tender. I use a potato masher to bust up the potatoes into smaller bite sized pieces. Add either whole milk, or half and half (personally I sneak in some instant milk when I think my family won’t notice it) until mixture is more creamy than watery. When it comes to potato soup, I cheat when thickening it and use either mashed potato flakes or mashed potatoes leftover from Christmas dinner. Let it heat about another half hour until it is good and steamy. Any soup left can easily be frozen and reheated later for a quick dinner during the week.
